Shawbrook Goes Live on Thought Machine's Vault Core to Scale Commercial SME Lending

Thought Machine, a cloud-native banking technology company, and Shawbrook, a leading UK specialist bank, have announced the successful launch of Shawbrook on Thought Machine's Vault Core platform. The deployment is intended to accelerate product innovation in commercial SME lending.

The partnership began in September 2024, when Shawbrook selected Vault Core as its core banking platform. By May 2025, the bank had already launched its first new product on the platform - a buy-to-let mortgage - demonstrating rapid deployment capability.

Vault Core serves as a fundamental component of Shawbrook's future banking strategy. The platform enables the bank to leverage configurable, real-time capabilities for faster product development, improved operational efficiency, and quicker market response, while preserving stability.

Shawbrook plans to use Vault Core to expand commercial SME lending, rapidly introduce new features, and increase back-end process automation. With hundreds of pre-built products built on smart contracts, the bank can independently develop tailored offerings for diverse customer segments - including individuals, businesses, and property professionals - and iterate quickly as market dynamics evolve.

Arthur Leung, Shawbrook's CTO, said: "The flexibility and real-time capabilities of Vault Core have allowed us to move at pace," while maintaining focus on customer needs.

Louise Bird, Commercial Product Officer at Shawbrook, added: "Launching on Vault Core in under nine months is not just a technical achievement, it's a strategic leap forward."

Paul Taylor, CEO of Thought Machine, commented: "Vault Core eliminates unnecessary complexity," and will "empower Shawbrook to redefine what modern commercial banking looks like in the UK."

Vault Core is already in production with some of the world's most prestigious banks and fintechs, including Standard Chartered, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Lloyds Banking Group.